tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68882392934393612962011-07-30T13:53:28.313-07:00Canada to Argentina by bicycleChris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-62657852464444877692010-05-05T15:06:00.000-07:002010-05-05T15:11:04.013-07:00

Well it had to come to an end eventually, I'm currently writing this post in Guayaquil Airport, Ecuador while I wait for my connecting flight home. Helen wrote the second part of this post a few weeks back and I was supposed to send post it a while back also, so some things are a little out of date. We've both had an amazing time in Ecuador. If anyone is interested in learning Spanish, I would

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-56625481775872439032010-02-11T13:54:00.000-08:002010-02-11T14:00:42.217-08:00

Cuenca...we arrived here by bus shortly before Christmas and intended to stay only a few days and decide what to do in the long-term as cycling no longer seemed to be an option due to Chris’s leg injury. Over a month later and we’re still here! We have decided to stop cycling, at least for now, to give Chris’s leg a chance to heal properly. Six months of hard cycling and determination/stubborn

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-3048177764175460162009-12-29T08:00:00.000-08:002009-12-29T08:00:53.321-08:00

The photos from these parts of our trip are now on the blog and also be viewed by following these links: Banos: Cuenca: Cajas National Park:

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-6133270716127570182009-12-29T07:53:00.000-08:002009-12-29T07:53:27.188-08:00

After our night in the brothel in Machachi we cycled to Cotopaxi National Park, named after Volcan Cotopaxi, an active volcano sitting at 5897m. The route was along the Panamerican Highway – the main highway through South America. The Panamerican Highway was sadly smelly, hot, hilly, dirty and tiring! The majority of the traffic was buses and lorries. They must use some dirty fuel here, because

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-36799377888123891372009-12-27T15:33:00.000-08:002009-12-27T15:33:49.460-08:00

Since arriving in Ecuador we haven't  done much cycling due to my stupid leg so after leaving Quito, we spent a day in Machachi walking around the market, then a few days near Volcan Cotopaxi before heading to Banos. The photos from these parts of our trip are now on the blog and also be viewed by following these links: Quito: Machachi: Cotopaxi: Enjoy!

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-86324113516065007902009-12-17T11:38:00.000-08:002009-12-17T11:38:40.720-08:00

I arrived safely in Quito after my 50 hour journey from Auckland to be met at the airport by Chris. I was relieved that my bike and luggage also made it, I had had 3 flights to catch and wasn’t that confident that they would arrive with me. We stayed in Quito for 6 nights. The city is split into ‘old’ and ‘new’ areas; the new area is pretty touristy and more expensive, whereas the old area is

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-68456671137099431532009-12-12T18:35:00.000-08:002009-12-12T18:35:38.729-08:00

These are my photos from Baja, Mexico.  Click to see in Picasa.  I'll hopefully add some captions soon.  Enjoy!

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-58958807054456277452009-12-10T15:58:00.000-08:002009-12-10T15:58:22.609-08:00

I'm now in Quito and have joined up with Helen for the South American Section of the trip! Helen has a netbook so I have managed to get a lot more photos on Picasa. These are the best from the USA, should have photo's from Mexico up soon, Enjoy! Click on the galleries to view from Picasa. Border to San Fran San Fran to Mexico

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-17963300959210257062009-11-30T18:14:00.000-08:002009-11-30T18:20:35.361-08:00

After leaving my desert camp spot the road saddly didn´t improve, its was a terrible combination of washboard and sand and my morale was pretty low, the views were great though!  Around midday a pickup truck passed me that had a cyclist in the back and it stopped just ahead of me.  I was pretty jealous that the guy had managed to get a lift for part of this terrible road.  He got out of the pick

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-77724674155578823612009-11-20T19:25:00.000-08:002009-11-20T19:25:21.870-08:00

A selection of photos from the last few weeks in mexico. I met Jim and Liz in a campground in Guerrero Negro and they suggested that I should come and camp with them at San Lucas Cove outside of Santa Rosalia.  I had a great time relaxing, enjoying some great food, kayaking and fishing.  Thank you both very much! This is Tomo from Japan, who I spent four days cycling with, as he decends

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-70626349683311805982009-11-19T18:27:00.000-08:002009-11-25T12:36:32.164-08:00

On the 31st of October I made it to Mexicali, and passed into Mexico.  It was an eventful day, I woke up before sunrise as I wanted to get to the Mexican border early and get on a bus to San Felipe.  On my way to the border I passed some cyclists and asked them if they knew of a nearby bike shop since I needed a few things and figured it would be less stressful getting them in the US. They

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-77985333343294217372009-11-07T18:46:00.000-08:002009-11-07T18:46:42.033-08:00

Will try and add some photos soon After our adventure in Sequoia National Forest Tom and I cycled towards Apple Valley through lots of desert. We stayed the first night outside California City after treating ourlselves to some great burritos from the Burrito van. I'm normally get nervous when camping by the road even though I do it a lot. When setting up camp on that particular night I

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-25664340204914247012009-10-23T13:13:00.000-07:002009-10-23T13:46:49.535-07:00

Tom managed to attach his Canon Powershot to his helmet with his Gorrilapod so we captured some time lapse photography in the Redwoods National Park. Enjoy!

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-34685935867532386622009-10-23T11:53:00.000-07:002009-10-23T12:59:01.252-07:00

From Sequoia National Park Tom and I were able to get a lift to Bakersfield with Ari (thanks!) we then started heading east on the quietest roads we could find.  We passed fields and fields of commercial agriculture and Tom helped himself to a few tasty oranges before we entered the sierra foothill at which point we thought we found a good camp spot by the road. On closer inspection the ground

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-32874624949930777492009-10-11T01:56:00.000-07:002009-10-11T01:56:01.894-07:00

I ended up spending about 5 days in San Francisco enjoying the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.  Here are some photos from my time in the city: Tom plays his banjo while I look in a book shop and try and find maps for South America.  The fifth bookshop I got to had some. I met Toms friend Adam in San Francisco, he very generously gave me and Tom a lift to Sequoia National Park. I met

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-52947847956955338952009-10-11T01:10:00.000-07:002009-10-23T12:06:38.934-07:00

I've spent the last week at Sequoia National Park and its been one of the highlights of the trip so far.  Me and Tom went on a 3 day hike into the mountains and saw some amazing scenery.   Here are some photos from the week (you may need to click on some of them to see the whole photo): The biggest tree in the world! On the hike Tom managed to catch a few small fish for us to eat.

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-52793217024606075402009-09-07T01:11:00.000-07:002009-09-07T01:11:50.003-07:00

Overview Scenery - 10 Road Conditions - 8 Free Camping opportunities - 9 Hills - 8 Services - 6 I decided to hitch into Jasper from Mcbride to give my leg some time to rest before paul would arrive a day later. When I arrived in town I headed to the Park HQ to ask about camping, they said it would $27 a night per site. Since I was by myself this would have been rediculously expensive so I set

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-13988169912832454312009-09-07T00:21:00.001-07:002009-09-07T00:21:48.679-07:00

If you haven’t done much bike touring before it’s sometimes hard to find the best equipment for the job, here are some of my recommendations. I have used all these products for at least a hundred days on the road. Topeak Mountain Morph Mini Pump Although not the smallest mini pump around, the extra hundred grams or so won’t make much difference to your overall weight and having properly

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-54368690139765702672009-09-07T00:19:00.001-07:002009-09-07T00:19:44.061-07:00

Before going for a bike ride/run it is nice to be able to accurately calculate how far your going to ride/run and to be able to see an elevation profile for the route. To do this I have been using two websites: http://www.mapmyride.com/ http://www.mapmyrun.co.uk/ Both website work well and are very similar in many ways. When using either website I would recommend selecting the auto follow

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-31198244911303873032009-09-06T23:12:00.000-07:002009-09-06T23:27:11.443-07:00

If you don't want to look through all my photos, these are my favorites so far for Canada.

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-53320429277771730532009-09-06T18:10:00.001-07:002009-09-07T00:15:39.745-07:00

This shall be updated as I get more time and as my gear changes as the trip goes continues Camp Stuff Tent - Vango Spirit 200 + This is a tunnel tent that I've been happy with so far.  One of the poles snapped on the first night (It had been used a lot before the trip) but since it has three poles, I used a section from the non essential vestibule pole to replace the broken section.  I've been

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888239293439361296.post-26506929212600415342009-09-06T16:36:00.000-07:002009-09-06T16:36:23.941-07:00

Overview Scenery - 8 Road Conditions - 7 (some gravel and less than smooth sealed roads) Free Camping opportunities - 10 Hills - 7 Services - 3 This section of the trip was one of the highlights so far. I can't remember quite when one day ended and the next begun, I'd like to say this was because it was one great continous adventure but I just have a pretty bad memory. So my descriptions of

Chris Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03759040704040856534noreply@blogger.com1